Aboitiz bags worldwide safety excellence award

CEBU, Philippines — The construction arm of the Aboitiz Group has bagged the worldwide safety excellence award for attaining “over 1.5 million safe man hours without a lost time injury (LTI).”

The award was for the Aboitiz Construction, Inc’s ongoing project in Sarangani, General Santos City for a 105-megawatt coal-fired power plant.

The project started in August last year and is expected to be completed by September this year.

The award was received by ACI President and Chief Operating Officer Alberto Ignacio Jr. from JGC Corporation, a global engineering firm based in Japan, during last Friday’s awarding ceremony held at a hotel in Cebu City.

“Creating a safety culture starts at the top with employers who recognize the need for processes that are easy to follow. This is what we practice and consistently implement to ensure that our workers and staff return safely to their homes everyday. Practicing safety and being careful costs us nothing but carelessness may cost our lives,” Ignacio said.

At present, ACI has 1,300 workers, including subcontractors.

Also, Ignacio thanked the project management team led by Project Manager Rommel Yu and Quality, Safety Health and Environment head Ambrosio Ompad for making the award happen.

ACI was the only contractor from the Philippines which received the award along with JGC’s five other contractors for ongoing projects across the globe, including those in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Indonesia.

Among the criteria for the award was the total recorded incident rate of close to zero, which is well and above the acceptable rate of 0.15.

Commendation from JGC was also considered in the selection process.

ACI has been a trusted partner of JGC for at least 14 years in mining, power, and petrochemical. Its mining project in Taganito, Surigao del Norte received a safety excellence award for attaining 4.1 million safe man hours in December 2012.

JGC provides ACI with engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services as one of its major subcontractor.

JGC is one of the biggest EPC service companies in the world for industrial and petro-chemical facilities.

Its Philippine subsidiary, JGC Philippines, takes pride in having more than a thousand technically-competent Filipino engineers and non-engineering professionals with experience both in international and domestic projects.

ACI, on the other hand, is a registered ‘Triple A’ general contractor with the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board. It has over 40 year of construction, fabrication, and engineering and project management services.

Prior to the awarding ceremony, JGC Project Director Tadashi Nagai and Ignacio have signed a contract for the210-megawatt coal-fired power station phase 2 project-SEC package 3 (Steel Structure, Mechanical and Piping Works). (FREEMAN)